telling of the miraculous birth of Jesus.
As a matter of fact, intelligent theologians know that it has no
reference to Jesus at all, in any way, but belongs to another
occurrence, as we shall see presently, and was injected into the
Gospel narrative merely to support the views of the writer thereof.

It may be well to add here that many of the best authorities hold that
the Greek translation of the Hebrew word "_almah_" into the equivalent
of "virgin" in the usual sense of the word is incorrect. The Hebrew
word "_almah_" used in the original Hebrew text of Isaiah, does not
mean "virgin" as the term is usually employed, but rather "a young
woman of marriageable age--a maiden," the Hebrews having an entirely
different word for the idea of "virginity," as the term is generally
used. The word "_almah_" is used in other parts of the Old Testament
to indicate a "young woman--a maiden," notably in Proverbs 30:19, in
the reference to "the way of a man with a maid."

But we need not enter into discussions of this kind, say the Higher
Critics, for the so-called "prophecy" refers to an entirely different
matter. It appears, say they, that Ahaz, a weakling king of Judea, was
in sore distress because Rezin the Syrian king, and Pekah the ruler of
Northern Israel, had formed an offensive alliance against him and were
moving their combined forces toward Jerusalem. In his fear he sought
an alliance with Assyria, which alliance was disapproved of by Isaiah
who remonstrated with Ahaz about the proposed move. The king was too
much unnerved by fear to listen to Isaiah's arguments and so the
latter dropped into prophecy. He prophesied, after the manner of the
Oriental seer, that the land would be laid waste and misery entailed
upon Israel, should the suicidal policy be adopted. But he held out a
hope for a brighter future after the clouds of adversity had rolled
by. A new and wise prince would arise who would bring Israel to her
former glory. That prince would be born of a young mother and his name
would be Immanuel, which means "God with us." All this had reference
to things of a reasonably near future and had no reference to the
birth of Jesus _some seven hundred years after_, who _was not a
prince_ sitting upon the throne of Israel, and who did not bring
national glory and renown to Israel, for such was not his mission.
Hebrew scholars and churchmen have often claimed that Isaiah's
prophecy was fulfilled by the birth of Hezekiah.

The